Working with CSS: Why it’s an Essential Programming Tool

There was once a time when website developers depended solely on tables and cells. This was back when html was still new, and websites were very simple. No one really thought about what would happen if the websites needed to be redesigned. Eventually, though, the cells and tables created problems with the html codes of websites. Since websites today need to be reupholstered every once in a while, using only cells and tables is out of the question. Every web developer needs to know how CSS or cascading style sheets work.

The CSS programming language is simple enough for beginning programmers and web developers to understand. Much of its fonts and color codes are similar to old school html. However, the webpage, when designed with CSS, is divided into boxes with unique styles. In a single webpage, you can have a static box model, a floating column, differently-sized fonts, more “glass” effects for images, rolling text, and a “floating” navigation. In other words, with the CSS, websites generally look more organized and professional.

The only downside here is that beginners may have a more difficult time generating CSS codes. Unlike html which runs on very similar patterns of logic as our human language, the CSS language is slightly more complex. It may take a while for web developers to manually grasp the logic behind the language.

There are a lot of free online CSS code generators, though. The programming language is free, and as long as web developers find proper platforms for their codes, building a website with this language should be a breeze. Just consider browser options when you’re styling your website, though. The Internet Explorer, for example, may display your CSS-based website quite differently from how a Mozilla Firefox browser of a Google Chrome browser would display it. As long as the images and the text are not deformed, these slight changes wouldn’t matter. Also, consider how well SEO techniques would work with this design.

Sometimes, the text on a floating column can’t be recognized by the search engine crawler. If your primary concern is the ranking of your website, you might want a simpler, single-level design. As the name suggests, CSS works with cascading, multi-layered boxes which could do wonders with the appearance of your website, but which might not work well with your organic SEO efforts.

Nicole Brooke | Administrator

Nicole is owner and SEO of Ignition Media. She has been an SEO for 15 years and has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to SEO, content marketing and Social Media exposure. Follow me on Google+View all posts by Nicole Brooke →